Persistent monitoring of corporations like Anglo American and Rio Tinto has earned a greater voice for affected communities. LONDON — Angela Paine has been going to Rio Tinto shareholder meetings for decades. She’s part of a group called Partizans, which since 1978 has brought indigenous people from around the world to the mining giant’s meetings using proxy shares. Paine said company officials did not used to welcome the guests.

“They would just ignore them, they would say you’re not really a shareholder,” she remembered over tea sandwiches served following Rio Tinto’s annual general shareholder meeting last month. “There was one big, black aboriginal man who got up on the stage to have his say. The company heavies came up and lifted him out…